The Seventh Space & Outer Space

I have finally filled my seventh child care space! I only had room for a child 4 or older, and those spaces are always the hardest to fill. Most people who put their kids in daycare do so when they are one (we get 50 weeks maternity leave in Canada), so most people who want their preschool-age kid in a family child care want them in the family child care they’ve been in since they were a baby. Generally I fill these spaces with people who have just moved here, either from the suburbs or another country- I’ve had kids from Bulgaria, Japan, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The new kid, CF, is a five-year-old girl. She was actually supposed to start this week but she has a bad cough so her dad postponed. They moved down here from the interior of BC last year (I think) but CF hasn’t been in another child care- she’s been in Children’s Hospital battling liver cancer.

Her doctor just gave him the go-ahead to put her in daycare (and register her for kindergarten in September), and when her dad called me last week and asked to come by so we could meet & discuss the possibility of his daughter coming her, he told me about her medical history so that when I met her I wouldn’t wonder why she was bald (she actually has a slightly fuzzy head like a little baby chicken). Everyone knows tiny little kids with terrible diseases is basically the saddest thing ever, but let me tell you, CT is not someone you need to coddle or pity. If a human being could be an exploding firecracker, that’s her. They stayed for about an hour, her dad and I talking and going through paperwork and CT and Symphony playing. The whole time she was just cheerful energetic giggles running jumping fun. She actually wore Symphony out- when they left I realized she hadn’t practiced her piano yet so I gave her a choice: do it then or do double practice the next day. She chose double practice the next day (who choose DOUBLE PIANO PRACTICE???) and went straight to bed AND straight to sleep!

In mural news, I am SO HAPPY with how everything is turning out. On the weekend I finished the outlines on the first seven planets:
… and I literally (as in the paint is still wet) just finished Saturn as well:
I also finally started the Sun:
… as well as the Earth and Mini-Mecha-Fawn:
I know these aren’t looking very impressive yet but don’t forget, the other eight paintings used to look like this. What a difference eight million layers of paint applied with a teeny-tiny fiddly brush makes, right?

Also: I know this blog has been a real snore lately, and I apologize. I’ve actually been sick and really drained for the last month and basically all I do is work-paint-sleep-repeat, which doesn’t really make for an exciting variety of posts.

Every week Symphony’s teacher gives her a couple of pages in each of her 2 piano books to practice. It takes her 20-30 minutes, depending on whether or not she’s having trouble with any of the pieces, and also if she tries to only do each one once instead of 3 times, the little sneak.

How do you watch all those kids and not go insane? I always thought daycare would be a good idea for me. However, I just started watching my wild nephew this week and it’s been hard to adjust. What is the routine like for your kids if you don’t mind me asking. I’d love for ideas! I’m dealing with two toddlers here and don’t want tv to be a big part of their lives!

For me, a combination of scheduled events and self-directed play that breaks the day up into smaller, manageable pieces. We go out to drop off/pick up at the school at a certain time every day (8:45-9:15, 11:35-11:55, 2:45-3:15), we have snacks and lunch at a certain time every day (10, 12, 3:30) and we have nap/quiet time at a certain time every day (9:30-10 if needed, 12:45-2:30). In between those times though, I let the kids pick what they want to do, whether it’s drawing, playing with blocks or cars, or (whether permitting) go outside to play. I find that if I set a big rigid schedule of activities myself then the kids lose interest quickly, like if I say OKAY NOW WE ARE GOING TO PAINT and I get out paper and paints and brushes and water and put smocks on everyone, then in two minutes everyone’s like I’M DONE, well, it’s just a waste of supplies and time. Another thing that helps with that is to make them clean up everything before they can move to another activity, so instead of an hour of straight playtime where they get all squirrelly, there is 30 minutes of playtime, followed by 10 minutes of cleanup, the 20 minutes of different playtime, followed by ten minutes of cleanup, and then snack or whatever.

YAY I’M SO GLAD!!! I left a comment on your lj about it but I guess you didn’t see it, I had a question about shipping- I could a) mail everything from here when it’s all done, probably next week, OR b) wait until the 22nd, when I’m going to be in Seattle, and mail it from there, which will probably be WAY cheaper.